How just seven traders earned $42m

How much P&L do you need to generate if you want to work for a top high frequency trading firm? If the UK operation of Sun Trading is anything to go by, it’s somewhere in the region of $6m a year.

The UK arm of Chicago-based HFT, Sun Trading, posted £28m ($42m) in revenues for 2014, according to accounts released this week. This is a slide from £35m in 2013, but is still impressive considering that it has just seven traders working for it.

On a per head basis, this means that revenue per front office employee was £4m ($6m), although this discounts the contribution of two management staff and another 11 employees working in support functions.

Of course, investment banks – stripped of their prop trading abilities by regulators after the financial crisis – would argue that it’s harder to make big sums when you’re mere ‘market-makers’. HFTs argue that they’re only market makers too. Michael Lewis may disagree.

Pay at Sun Trading in London still appears comparatively modest, however. On a per head basis, the £5m it allocated to compensation last year works out as only £253k ($383k). Coincidentally, this exactly the same as the average compensation at Goldman Sachs last year….